Chevrolet Bolt EV’s Future is Looking Increasingly Bleak
On Tuesday, General Motors announced it would spend $7 billion USD in Michigan to increase electric vehicle and battery production, converting Orion Assembly in the process to build electric pickups including the Chevrolet Silverado EV and GMC Sierra EV starting in 2024.
The Orion plant, as you may know, is where the Chevrolet Bolt EV and Bolt EUV are currently manufactured. Or were manufactured. These two models are still on idle as GM focuses on delivering replacement batteries for all the units that were ever made. Multiple reports of fires led the automaker to issue a recall.
“Orion is currently down through February, so we can continue focusing LG battery pack production on recall repairs,” GM spokesperson Dan Flores told CNN Business. Production plans for the Bolt EV and Bolt EUV beyond February have not yet been decided, he said.
Flores did confirm to several U.S. media that GM will keep making Bolts at Orion during the plant’s conversion to electric pickups, but had nothing more to say. It doesn’t look like production will move to another facility, either, adding further uncertainty to the picture.
When the refreshed 2022 Bolt EV and all-new Bolt EUV were introduced about a year ago, chief engineer Jesse Ortega explained that neither of them would migrate to the new, longer-range Ultium battery and architecture at any point in time.
So, why would GM keep them around when more advanced and better products join the lineup? For the price? Not really. Remember, there’s an Ultium-based Equinox EV (pictured below) slated to launch in the fall of 2023 with a base MSRP of around $35,000 before incentives. This would make it even more affordable than both the Bolt EV and Bolt EUV, which start at $38,198 and $40,198, respectively.
We expect to have more details from GM later this winter, so watch this space.